


These nightmares always hang on past the dream.

by Werepirechick



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Blankets, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Needs A Hug, Family Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hot Chocolate, Loss of Parent(s), Nightmares, Outer Space, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Space Flight, Team as Family, Tumblr Prompt, give them a break please, otherwise known as space feels, set during the space arc, they're still just teens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 12:22:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8401498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werepirechick/pseuds/Werepirechick
Summary: Not all ghosts are paranormal ones. Sometimes, the ones in your own mind are more than enough to terrify you.
(Nightmares can happen to anyone, even ninjas and vigilantes. Good thing they've got each other for comfort.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Um. Happy Halloween I suppose? The theme this month was 'Hauntings' and I feel like this wasn't quite what I was supposed to do, but eh, it happened regardless.
> 
> I love my kids, let them find a moment of peace pls. They're not even legal yet, give them a break.

 

 

Mikey jolted awake, expecting to see his room’s stone ceiling, but instead saw smooth metal in its place.

Another thudded heartbeat and Mikey remembered where he was.

Oh yeah. They were on the professor’s spaceship. Home was a long way from where they were now.

He groaned, laying an arm over his face. He was supposed to be sleeping, not awake. But ugh, nightmares. Really awful nightmares.

_(Squirrelenoids, it was always squirrelenoids. Crawling out of the sewers they’d drowned in, or at least where they’d supposedly drowned. Where Mikey could’ve drowned too._

_Tens of them, way more than there had been in real life, just as big and horrible as he remembered; nails and teeth gnashing at Mikey as they predatorily circled him._

_Then, the dream shifted the ground under his feet, and he and the hostile mutants were outside; above ground, above the sewers. Mikey backed up, away from the incredibly terrifying creatures he’d unintentionally helped create, and right into something behind him._

_Mikey spun around, and stared up at his dad. For a moment, he was relieved, and then-_

_Two blades went through his father’s stomach, and Splinter’s body disintegrated in front of Mikey. Standing, now in front of Mikey, was the Shredder; holding his weapons triumphantly up to the sky._

_Mikey was frozen, hearing the squirrelenoids getting closer behind him, and unable to tear his off the man in front of him. He couldn’t do anything against him, Mikey didn’t have his weapons or his brothers- where were they? -Mikey was alone and powerless in the face of this human, a human that was more monster than anyone he’d ever met._

_Then the Shredder’s mask disappeared, and his head turned into a squirrelenoid’s. Mouth agape, and extended tongue reaching for Mikey as he, it?, screeched at him._

_Claws and teeth latched onto Mikey’s body from all sides, and then the Shredder’s twin blades went through_ his _stomach, the same place they had through his father’s.)_

Mikey grumbled under his breath. It wasn’t even a nightmare that made much sense, but it’d made sleeping again undesirable anyways.

Better to get up and find something to eat instead; maybe a hot drink would calm him down enough he could at least snooze until everyone else woke up.

Mikey tossed the covers off him, and went to go think-create a snack for himself.

The halls of the ship were dim and quiet, and it was only Mikey’s footfalls that disturbed it. he held in his hand the cup of tea he’d made for himself; imagining as best he could what the tea his father used to- did make for him. The way his father _did_ make it for him.

Master Splinter wasn’t dead yet. They were going to save him, and the earth too.

Mikey sipped the warm drink, and sighed briefly. It wasn’t quite the flavor his dad would make, but it would have to do for now.

He still didn’t feel like sleeping though. Hngh.

Mikey kept walking, past the corridor that led to the sleeping dorms, and towards the main control room. Even if their circumstances sucked, at least space was still really pretty to look at. Maybe if he sat and watched the star systems around them for a while, he’d feel better enough that he could sleep again.

He was half tempted to go find one of his older brothers to comfort him, reassure him it was just a stupid dream, but Mikey couldn’t do that. They needed their sleep, and it was just a nightmare. He’d handle it on his own.

When he opened the doors to the bridge though, he found that he wasn’t the only one awake.

Someone was sitting in front of the wide window already, wrapped in one of the blankets they all had on their beds. The blue mask tails gave away who it was.

Leo didn’t look back towards the noise of the sliding door, so Mikey took it as a sign that he was welcome. He padded across the room, and sat down next to his eldest brother.

Leo didn’t look at him, keeping his eyes on the slowly drifting stars around their ship. His eyes were far away, and even with the mask on, Mikey could tell his brother had sleepless bags under his sockets.

“Bad night too?” Mikey asked, phrasing the question like that, even though there was no actual night time in space.

Leo nodded mutely, still keeping his gaze on the endless void outside the window.

_(He’d been sleeping, dreaming of being home with their father again, but the lair had melted away and left him standing in a dark void._

_Spinning around, Leo looked for his family, and found nothing._

_He called out, but the blackness swallowed his voice._

_Then, suddenly, his father was in front of him. Then Raph, and Donnie, and Mikey, and April and Casey-_

_They all stared blankly at Leo, eyes milky and dead._

_Slash marks appeared over their torsos, and started pouring blood._

_Leo couldn’t move as each one of his family members died right in front of him. He’d failed them, he’d failed them all, they were dead and he hadn’t been able to do anything to stop it-_

_Their bodies dropped to the black ground, and then Shredder was looming over him._

_Leo heard Oroku Saki’s laugh, the deep sound resonating through his skull, the same moment the Shredder’s blades went through his stomach._

_Leo gasped for breath, feeling his throat tear open in the same place it had months ago, and his plastron split apart._

_He woke up.)_

Leo put his hand over the raised scars of his throat.

They still hurt sometimes; itching and aching in a way that wasn’t really there. He hated it. Hated what it represented.

His voice had been wrecked by the Shredder, changed irreparably. The day he’d almost lost his life to the man still haunted him frequently; appearing in his dreams at night, or shuddering across his vision when he didn’t expect it to.

Master Splinter’s death was worse though. Every night since they’d gone to space, their father’s death played out in Leo’s mind; sometimes along with the rest of his family’s. He couldn’t stop seeing those twin blades go through them, and him, over and over and over-

Something warm touched Leo’s hands.

Leo pulled himself back to reality, and looked down. There was a steaming mug being held just above Leo’s slack hands.

Oh. Mikey was giving Leo the cup of tea.

Leo took it, nodding a thank you, and sipped at the hot drink.

It tasted like home.

Leo went back to staring out the window, drifting away from reality. Mikey didn’t seem to expect him to respond to anything, and wasn’t talking either, so they just sat there in silence.

It was better than sitting alone.

After a long pause, Mikey spoke again.

“I miss dad too,” Mikey said, voice soft and quiet for once.

Leo nodded, still not speaking, and sipped at his tea. Even without him having to say so, Mikey could probably tell why Leo was out on the bridge. For all his slip ups and missed social cues, Mikey always seemed to be able to tell when one of their brothers was upset; even Leo.

Leo appreciated that about his brother.

He was about to take another sip of the blessedly warm tea, when the door behind them ‘ _zwooped_ ’ open again.

Leo turned his head this time, wondering who else could be up at this hour.

Raph stood in the open doorway, looking as surly as he always did when he woke up too early; obviously as sleep deprived as Leo felt.

_(He’d been asleep, deep asleep; in that pleasant blackness that came with such a depth of sleeping._

_Raph wasn’t one for highly detailed imaginations, but his subconscious apparently hadn’t gotten the message._

_Chains, suddenly there’d been chains all over him. Dragging him down, making his bones creak. Something was in his head, he could feel it oozing and slithering there. Fleshy little needles, soft but sharp, burrowing into his brain and making itself at home._

_He- he needed to get up. He needed to go to his family. They needed him. Why couldn’t he stand up?_

_Raph knew it; he_ knew _they were in trouble. His brothers, his father, his friends- they needed him right that moment. So why. couldn’t. he. stand. UP?!_

_Raph pulled and yanked and tried with every ounce of his strength to break the chains holding him. He- he_ had to _. They’d die if he didn’t. From what? What would they die from?_

_The Shredder, the Kraang, the Triceratons- everything, everything was trying to hurt them and he wasn’t there to stop it-_

_Why couldn’t he break the chains?_

_WHY WASN’T HE STONG ENOUGH TO BREAK THE CHAINS?!_

_The thing in his head burrowed deeper, gleefully shredding through his brain tissue, as Raph tried and tried and tried to break the chains._

_The metal binds wrapped bone-breakingly tight around his limbs, and pulled him down into the blackness._

_His strength failed him, the one time it really mattered._

_Raph woke up.)_

Raph blinked at his older, and younger, brothers sitting in front of the wide window and somehow, he wasn’t terribly surprised to have found them there.

Though he’d never tell anyone about it, Raph could always tell when one of them were missing, or moving around when they shouldn’t be. Older brother intuition; and that intuition applied to _all_ his brothers, Leo included.

Whether Leo wanted to admit to it or not, Raph knew he and Leo were too closely matched, in everything really, to have a proper older-younger brother relationship.

Which was why, Raph had woken up from his unpleasant dreams, and went to find out why he was feeling something off.

Not waiting for an invite, Raph trudged over to Leo and Mikey, and sat down on Leo’s other side; pulling his brother’s blanket off his shoulder, and spreading it over both their laps. Leo didn’t resist, so Raph didn’t apologize or give the blanket back.

“Not sleeping?” Mikey asked, peeking around Leo to see Raph.

“Hardly.” Raph grumbled back.

Mikey leaned across the space between them, and patted Raph’s now blanket covered knee. Leo handed Raph the cup of tea he’d been holding.

Raph took a sip of the half empty drink. It tasted like home.

God he missed home.

Barely a moment later, the doors he’d just come in from opened again. Raph, Mikey, and Leo turned their heads towards the sound; looking for whoever had come to join them.

April stood there, wrapped in her sleeping quarter’s blanket, and her hair in a wild snarl. She had deep bags under her eyes, and looked harried as anything.

Raph grimaced, because it didn’t seem like anyone was having an easy time sleeping right now.

April blinked blearily at them all, and despite the spooked look she had, she somehow managed to seem half asleep as well.

_(She’d been sleeping, dreaming of something nice that she couldn’t recall anymore, when the world had twisted around her, and-_

_Her dad. Her dad standing in front of her, smiling, and looking like the man he’d been before the Kraang had kidnapped him. Not the PTSD ridden survivor, but the quirky psychologist father he’d always been to her._

_Then, his body bulged, and he’d unleashed an unearthly shriek at her._

_Quick as he’d appeared, April’s father was replaced by the man-bat hybrid he’d been mutated into._

_April was stuck frozen, looking into his huge eyes, and found no evidence of recognition._

_He didn’t know who she was._

_The mutant that had been her father opened his jaws, spreading his malformed wings, and flew at her with a ravenous sounding cry._

_April dodged the attack, her footing clumsy, and fell onto hard metal floors. April looked up, and found herself in a Kraang ship, the one that had kidnapped her months ago to use as a dooms-day device._

_Too-tall to be real figures stood over her, hundreds of identical faces blank and unforgiving, then-_

_The human guises melted away, turning into multicolored burning liquid that scalded April as she scrambled off the floor. Where were the boys? Where were her friends? They said they’d protect her, that they’d always be there to make sure she got home safe, where were they-?!_

_Kraang Prime loomed over April, maniacal cackling like nails on a chalk board. Metal restraints and wires snaked out from the surrounding drones, latching onto April’s arms and legs. April opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out as the enormous alien overlord hovered above her; malevolent grin revealing all its hundreds of sharp teeth._

_April struggled, and she couldn’t find any of her ninjutsu training within her mind. She was alone-  where was her adopted family-  she was trapped- why couldn’t she escape on her own she’d trained for this- and her father was too out of his mind to even consider coming to rescue his daughter-_

_The cold metal circling her arms and legs started to become warm, and the metal turned to flesh, and the Kraang surrounding April vanished, leaving instead-_

_April’s mother. Her_ fake _mother._

_The mutant monster that had pretended to be her mother, its body splitting into halves and ballooning into a hundred writhing limbs- it held April in a strangling grip, still using the mask of April’s mother as its head._

_It smiled at April with too many teeth, and its chest split open, revealing April’s friends and family already trapped within; sutures made from pink flesh holding them there, binding their bodies forever to the genetic monstrosity._

_The tentacles wrapped around April dragged her towards the gaping maw, and April finally managed a scream just as the folds closed over her head._

_April woke up.)_

April squinted at the three brothers already sitting in the control room, but decided she was too tired to question why they were there. In fact, she welcomed the company. Her nightmare had dredged up so many awful memories; she didn’t feel like she’d sleep again for days.

April walked across the room, dragging her blanket along with her, and sat down next to Raph. April silently offered Raph some of her covers, and Raph took the offer; releasing his share of Leo’s blanket in favor of her’s.

April gave a small smile as Leo reclaimed his comforter, and right afterwards started to share it with Mikey.

“Bad dream?” Mikey and Raph asked her at the same time, Leo also shooting her a look of concern.

“Mrgh,” April replied un-committedly. Bad dream didn’t even begin to describe it.

Raph’s reaction was to push a mostly empty cup of luke-warm tea into her hands. April took the last bit of it in one gulp, letting the semi-warm liquid slide down her dry feeling throat. She couldn’t place the brief taste, but it made her feel nostalgic for some reason.

“Thanks, I needed that,” April said to Raph, grateful for the quick drink. Raph nodded, and not-so-subtly let a little more of their shared blanket fall to April’s side of the arrangement. April smiled to herself, and chose to not call him out on the act of affection.

They’d barely situated themselves, just as the doors behind the four of them opened again. April turned her head, same time as the three brothers did, to see who it was.

Donnie shuffled into the room, head drooping as he focused intently on the holo-screen in his hands. His mask was hanging around his neck, rather than tied neatly around his face, and even from across the room April could see the deep, black bags under his eyes.

Donnie stopped, halfway to his chosen cock-pit in the control room, and seemed to finally realize he wasn’t the only one present.

April waved at Donnie. “Hey Donnie, still working?”

Donnie squinted at them all, not responding as he grimaced. He looked like he didn’t believe they were actually there.

“Have you slept at all?” Raph asked in a vaguely scolding tone. “You look like shit.”

“Sleep is for people without work to do. Also for the weak.” Donnie replied deadpan. He dropped his eyes from them again, about to go back to whatever he was doing before he got there, when Leo spoke for the first since April had come into the room.

“Come sit down, Donnie. Just for a little while, you need to rest at least a few minutes,” Leo said quietly, not raising his voice above a whisper. His voice sounded gravelly to April’s ears, and she guessed that his vocal cords were acting up again. “How about a power nap? Promise we’d wake you up on time.”

April already could tell Leo was lying about that part, the waking Donnie back up part; she didn’t need sixth-sense powers to tell that. She didn’t say anything against Leo’s claim though, nor does anyone else, because they’re all going to lie about waking Donnie up.

Honestly, sometimes April felt like she’d have to shackle her best friend to his bedside in order for him to get a good night’s sleep.

Donnie blinked at them all, half disbelieving, half from lack of sleep.

_(He didn’t sleep. Period._

_Too much to be done, too many things to sort through or learn or puzzle out. Clues to the where-abouts of the generator parts, sciences he’d only dreamed of ever existing, stars systems and maps and whole civilization he never knew to exist until he went to space._

_Donnie was so woefully unprepared in comparison to the rest of the universe. He thought himself a genius for so long, and now, he’s not even sure about that._

_Donnie was thousands of years behind; his formerly prized skills learned from trial and error, gaining those skills with only literal garbage to work with. Donnie was nothing compared to eons ahead races out in the endless galaxy._

_Donnie slept only in fitful snatches; power naps, half dozing breathers between cramming sessions. Sleep was for when they were safe again, when they were home and their planet restored permanently. And besides, as long as he didn’t sleep longer than a half hour at a time, none of the images and visions he knew were lurking in the back of his mind could touch him._

_You didn’t get nightmares if you didn’t sleep, and Donnie wasn’t going to sleep until they were all home and safe again._

_He probably wouldn’t sleep when they got back to earth either, to be honest. Not knowing that they were still so vulnerable to the rest of the universe._

_He had so much ground to make up for, so much to educate himself on. How could he even consider sleeping, when knowing the right bit of information could mean the difference between life and death for his family?_

_Donnie didn’t sleep. Period.)_

Donnie opened his mouth to refuse Leo’s offer, but Leo was looking at him with his _‘I’m your older brother and leader’_ stare, and that left little room for argument. Donnie would have argued anyways, but Raph was also looking at him, and Mikey, _and_ April.

He could already tell they weren’t going to back down, and that he would lose badly if he fought.

Donnie shut his mouth, and turned off the holo-screen. A few minutes wouldn’t hurt him; he could doze for a while and then go right back to work.

Donnie tried to sit down slowly, but his legs weren’t working quite right, and he essentially slumped against Mikey’s side.

“Wake me up in twenty,” Donnie mumbled, eyes already trying to drag themselves shut. Through blurry vision, Donnie felt and heard Mikey and Leo’s blanket getting thrown over him, as Donnie let Mikey maneuver him into lying down.

With his head pillowed on Mikey’s leg, Donnie tried and failed to stay awake a little longer.

He slipped off into a black, dreamless sleep, with Mikey patting Donnie’s aching skull.

Mikey waited for no longer than a minute, and then his older brother was dead asleep. Thank goodness, Donnie needed to take better care of himself; Mikey didn’t know what they’d do without their resident everything-genius.

Mikey was absolutely, a hundred percent, not at all surprised to hear the sliding doors behind them open again.

Mikey carefully looked over his shoulder, making sure he didn’t jostle his brother in the process.

Casey stumbled into the room, dragging what looked like most of his bed with him, and squinted at the five other teens.

"What the fuck, is anyone sleeping tonight??" Casey asked, sounding kind of offended that he wasn’t alone.

Mikey’s _“Nah.”_ was joined by April and Raph’s _“Not even.”_ and Leo’s quiet, _“No.”_

Casey wrinkled his nose, examining their assembled semi-circle.

_(He’d been dreaming… about his family. About losing them again for a third time._

_He hadn’t been there, both the first and second times, even though the whole point of becoming a vigilante was to make it_ safer _for them. His dad, his little sister… Casey wasn’t there for them both times the world almost ended._

_He’d been running through the streets of the city he knew like the back of his hand, full vigilante gear, and searching fast as he could for his family. This time, this time he’d be there for them, if he could just find them, he could keep them safe and get them away from whatever threat was chasing him_ this _time-_

_Casey had rounded another corner, skates leaving skid marks on the pavement, and pushed himself harder._

_He needed to be there for them, his dad didn’t know a baseball bat from a hockey stick, he wouldn’t be able to protect Casey’s little sister, that’s why Casey had become a vigilante to protect them both and he wasn’t there. for. them._

_Casey could hear the scrabbling claws of whatever was chasing him, getting closer and closer, no matter how much speed he pushed for._

_Why couldn’t he find his apartment building? Where was it? he was lost, how could he be lost, this was his home, his turf, the one thing he knew for certain out of everything was his city, his community, why couldn’t he_ find his home-

_Demonic shrieks erupted behind him, and Casey felt huge teeth bite into his legs and shoulders. Casey’s gloved hands scrabbled on the asphalt as the monsters dragged him back, flipping him over to get at his squishy organs._

_Huge, mutant rats loomed over him, rotting stab holes through their stomachs, and wide gaping jaws with yellow teeth. Pink tentacles thrashed from places that just looked_ wrong _to have extra limbs, and their skin bubbled disgustingly all over in patches._

_They looked a little like master Splinter, if the guy had been a huge horrible, insane mutant Kraangified rat._

_Casey screamed as they’d bit into him._

_He woke up.)_

Rats were a normal nightmare thing; he could deal with that, but huge mutant ones with Kraangy bits? Huge mutant rats that resembled the not-dead ninja master he’d known and respected? _Plus,_ weird desolate cityscapes where he couldn’t find his way, _or_ his family?

No thanks. Casey would rather give up sleeping than deal with that.

Whatever had happened in the rest of his friends’ dreams, they must’ve been bad, if not worse, since each one of them were already sitting in the control room.

Casey stared at them all a moment longer, Donnie sleeping on Mikey’s knee, Leo sitting in the middle, Raph and April sharing a blanket…

Then, Casey shrugged to himself, and decided to not ask what’d happened to them. He didn’t feel like sharing his weirdly scary nightmare with anyone, and the other teens probably wouldn’t want to share their sleeping issues either. Live let live, or something.

He walked across the room, threw his hauled along comforter and sheet at Leo, and started to push into the spot he wanted in the kitschy-sharing circle thing.

“Scoot over Raph,” Casey said, shoving his way between April and Raph both. “C’mon, you too April, I want in and its cold on the end.”

“You could’ve kept your damn blanket, idiot,” Raph growled at Casey, even as he shoved over as asked, and dropped his end of the blanket to let Casey sit down. April rolled her eyes, but moved over just enough that Casey could slide between them both.

Casey grinned at April and Raph both, stealing Raph’s half of the blanket, and snuggling into the already warm comforter. “Heck yeah. This is way better than sittin’ in my room alone.”

“Glad you think so,” Raph said sarcastically, still trying to sort out his and Leo’s new arrangement of blankets.

“I should’ve made more tea,” Mikey said offhandedly, making no sense to Casey with the statement, but that wasn’t unusual.

“I’d like more tea,” April said, her petite yet strong body pressing on Casey’s right side, just as Raph’s kinda rough feeling scales pressed on Casey’s left. Casey settled into the shared blanket cocoon, and felt a lot better than he had about five minutes ago.

_“Perhaps I could assist in that arrangement,”_ Professor Honeycutt’s voice said somewhere above them. Casey looked up, same as everyone else excluding Donnie, and stared at the speakers on the ceiling. _“If one of you wouldn’t mind coming to the back and helping me create some drinks, since I don’t actually know how earth drinks taste like, or what tea it is you are looking for… oh my, sometimes being a robot can be a bit troublesome can’t it? I don’t actually remember what earth tea tastes like… or how to make it really, though I do remember being taught once long ago. I believe you six know him from your history? He was an odd one, fighting governments by dumping whole shipments of tea into a harbor, goodness knows what that accomplished…”_

“Does the professor sleep?” Casey whispered under his breath, listening to the robot alien ramble over the intercom about not remembering what the proper way to make tea was, and historical figures Casey couldn’t recall. “If he doesn’t, he probably should, ‘cause he’s sounding a lil loopy righ’ now.”

Raph sighed deeply, and got up from the comforter he and Leo had finally finished arranging. “I got it. Don’t move Leo, I just got that set up right, and we’ll be right back.”

“Wasn’t going to,” Leo replied quietly, though Casey could hear a hint of teasing in his gravelly voice.

April yawned beside Casey, and slumped a little onto his shoulder. Leo seemed to be drooping ever so slightly as well, probably warming up from the extra comforter Casey had given him. Casey craned his head a bit, and caught a glance of Mikey rubbing Donnie’s shoulder. The tallest brother was snoring almost in-audibly, and out cold as he sprawled out on the metal floor.

Casey turned away from the three mutants, and started looking out the window while they waited for Raph to come back.

Space was pretty cool all in all, even if everything it’d taken to get them out into it sucked majorly.

Casey kinda wished he hadn’t left his phone in the lair prior to the big show down; if he’d brought it to space, what a slide show of selfies that would have made.

Maybe he should ask Donnie to invent him a new phone? Nah, the nerd was already too busy with sciency stuff with the professor; Donnie would just bite off Casey’s question before he even got it out. Which was fair enough, since just hearing summaries of what Donnie was studying gave Casey a headache.

His little sister though, she would’ve loved to see pictures of the places Casey had been the last while.

…Casey missed earth, and his family.

But… at least he had the other half of it with him still.

The doors behind them all slid open, and Casey caught the metallic footfalls of their robotic friend coming into the room.

Raph reappeared in front of their group, carrying a platter with six steaming cups. Raph handed Casey a cup of hot chocolate, same as he did to everyone else.

Leo raised an eyebrow, peering at the thick liquid in his cup. “I thought you were going to make tea?”

“I got distracted,” Raph said gruffly, though the gentle way he handed Mikey his cup betrayed how little he was actually annoyed by Leo’s question.

Casey took a sip of the hot chocolate, and found it tasted like the kind he’d make with real powder sometimes; like his mom had made for him years ago, and like how he’d made a cup for Raph a couple weeks back.

Casey smiled to himself, felt a little less homesick, and didn’t call his friend out on being a sap.

April sipped at her cup of hot chocolate; her fears clearing from her mind, and let it chase away the rest of her cold slimy feelings inside.

Raph settled down next to his big brother and best friend, and ignored the knowing looks Casey gave him; instead enjoying the solid presence of himself amongst his family.

Donnie slept, carefully undisturbed by his family around him, and fell into a softly colored place that let him feel safe again.

Mikey smiled around the rim of his cup, already feeling the lift of his family’s spirits, and felt completely reassured of his reality.

Leo sat content, surrounded by the alive and well voices of his family, and breathed easy again.

The professor, sensing he wasn’t welcome at this particular moment, carefully slipped out of the room; the door sliding shut once again, as it would stay until the gathered teens felt like they could sleep again.

Keeping their voices low and soft, the five teens still awake talked about good things they remembered of their time together, and reminisced about earth. They didn’t move again until hours had passed, and their cups of warmth were long emptied.

In front of a wide window that showed the vastness of the universe, six teens sat together, and reminded themselves they weren’t alone.

They might not be on earth, and they might not have a home, but at least they still had each other.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Found families and platonic fluff are my absolute deepest weakness. I literally cannot handle them when combined together, they'll kill me straight dead.
> 
> Action sequences are amazing and oodles of fun, but could we maybe get some fluffy moments in there? I mean, these kids lost literally everything in one fell swoop, and they didn't even get a moment to mourn.   
> Also, literally everyone must have PTSD or SOME sort of trauma at this point. The stuff they've seen, the things they've had to do, the shit that's been done to them??? IDK about ya'll, but I don't think I'd be able to sleep after most of that.
> 
> Anyways, too sappy? Just enough sappy fluff? Lemme know in the comments below, I'd like to see if ya'll liked the fic as much as my beta did. (There was much squeeing apparently, and they confessed that some bits made them tear up. Did any of you cry? Idk if anyone else would, my beta's a bit of a softy, bless them.)
> 
> Thanks for reading, have a nice day!


End file.
